When choosing a camper van, a good way to start is to create a list of features that are required or nice to have. For a camper van to be successful, that is providing value to you, you need to enjoy driving it and living in it and it needs to be capable of taking you where you want to go. This article discusses our checklist and the reasons for each item. 

In our previous post we discussed the pit falls of choosing and purchasing a van. This article discusses more detail on whether a van fits with your lifestyle. 

The Van part of Camper Van

One thing that is almost guaranteed is that a van will be harder to drive and less polished than a family sedan. Just the relationship between the driver and the controls is enough to make the experience very different. In a van you will generally sit up and over the steering wheel like in a bus or truck rather than in front of it. The size is larger and it can be harder to see things outside the van. The suspension and the seats will be different. The sheer mechanics, such as a much lower ratio'd gear box, emphasise the differences.

Thinking carefully about what is required for your comfort will make it much easier to live with your van.

Probably the first thing to consider is whether you want an automatic or manual and just how important this is. Automatics are easier to drive, however they are rarer than manuals in this part of the automotive market. There is also a skewing in terms of age. Newer vans are more likely to be automatic.

Is Cruise Control important? For me, travelling over very long distances, cruise is very important. However it is rare in tradesman vans that were designed to be driven in town. If you choose a van base for your camper that is designed as a huge sedan - things like the Tarago, Grand Carnival etc - then it is more likely to have cruise control. While ten or twenty years ago, cruise was a frippery, now I consider it almost essential as a way to manage driver fatigue over long distances. In most cases you will want to travel many miles in your van.

A van will certainly be more challenging to manoeuvre, especially in tight spots. You have to do more backing and filling because of the size of the thing. If you have power steering then this will be easier. It becomes a breeze to move the steering wheel from full lock to full lock. Otherwise you will get muscly arms very quickly. Power steering has been a priority for me for about 20 years now. However at the low end of the market where we bought, it is rare.

Backing is a big issue in a van. The tail gate is so far behind you and the visibility is less than a sedan, that it is almost an accident waiting to happen. There are three solutions to this issue: some vans will come with an extra mirror on the tailgate which allows you to see how far you are from any obstacle behind you. Another option is some form reversing sensor that beeps and whines as you get close to the obstacle behind you. The final option is that of a reversing camera. Having one of these solutions is a great help in reversing a van.

Australia is generally hot. We live in the mountains but still get some days each year over 40° C (104° F). Some of the places we would like to visit are continually hot. The Northern part of Australia doesn't have seasons just the wet and the dry and it is always hot. Personally, I think there is nothing worse than sitting in a vehicle sweating because of the sun shining in the windscreen. Air conditioning was also high on our list.

The type of fuel used by the van will have a big impact on the running costs. In Australia we have three main types of fuel for vehicles. There are also some fuels, such as compressed natural gas (CNG) that are not very accessible. Unleaded petrol - in about three different flavours - is the most common but also the most expensive. It has the benefit that it is the default and available everywhere.

Possibly the cheapest fuel to run is LPG (Liquified Petroleum Gas). LPG is generally about half the price of unleaded at the bowser. However, a vehicle will use up to 20% more LPG than unleaded to go the same distance.

The final fuel is diesel or distillate. The general rule of thumb is that a diesel engine will be up to twice as efficient as an engine running on unleaded. Looking around the net, the 2.4L unleaded Hiaces are reported as anything from the mid teens to the twenties  for litres per hundred km. Tin Lizzy seems to turn in about 9.5L/100km on diesel. However, some of those quoted figures are for vans heavily loaded, which Tin Lizzy isn't.

Currently diesel is about the same price per litre as unleaded. Sometimes it is up to 20c (about 1/7 of the price) per litre more. We wanted a van running on either LPG or diesel. The LPG van would have to be able to run both unleaded and LPG - the most common situation, there are very few pure gas vehicles.

The Camper part of Camper Van

The size of the van impacts in so many ways. For liveability, the biggest is the best. More space for possessions, more comfort, less miniature things as compromises instead of full sized gear.

On the other hand the bigger the van, the harder it is to manoeuvre, drive and even park. Almost all the local parking garages where we live have a maximum vehicle height of 2.2m. Tin Lizzy is 2.215m so we can't use them. Many camper vans are in the same situation. Once you get to the size of a small bus, you are into the territory of specialised parking areas. Finally the bigger the van the more fuel you will use in getting it from A to B.

In Australia the general rule is  - there are a very few exceptions - that every passenger must be in a designated seat with a seat belt. This means that you need to count noses and match that to the number of seats in your van. There are three of us who wish to travel in the van so we needed something with three seats or more. 

Berths is another issue. If you have three people you either need three berths or you need to have someone sleep outside. Many small vans only have two berths. We didn't want the hassle of setting up tents etc so we chose a van in which we could build a third berth.

In your camper van you will need one, two or even three sources of energy, depending on what you are planning to do. Tin Lizzy will initially have two: a 240v power inlet to a single power point and  a 9kg gas bottle for the stove. Eventually we will be adding a 12v power system charged off the engine and also from solar panels. Natively Tin Lizzy will be 12v and gas, the only exception will be a cpap machine which requires 240v. When we don't have external 240v, we will use an inverter to supply. 

What power sources you need will depend on what you want to do and other things (like our cpap machine) that are particular to you. Some vans will come fully fitted out with your three sources of power, others like Tin Lizzy, will be inadequate without some work. I have estimated that it will cost somewhere just over $1000 to add solar and batteries to Tin Lizzy and it is currently on the list for the future.

If you talk to people who spend a lot of time on the road, a common thing that is missed is somewhere comfortable to sit. In our homes we have sofas and arm chairs that have been specially selected so that we can sit in comfort. In caravans and camper vans, any seating is a bit hit and miss. The most common are bench seats that are built in and I always find them uncomfortable. An alternative is fold up chairs - also uncomfortable. In our case we have two of the original bus seats that we will be anchoring in a lounge area. Here's a tip, car and bus seats are generally designed to be comfortable over long hauls, much more so than a caravan built in bench seat.

Take a careful look at the kitchen facilities. They will usually be basic: a fridge, a hob and a washing up bowl. Quite often the washing up bowl will be plumbed in with some form of tap - either electric or manual pump. We decided we would use a plastic bowl since it was cheaper, simpler, lighter and there was limited extra utility from the stainless steel ones that you see. The hob will be a camping stove that we already have. The search for a fridge has been discussed in this post.

The location of the kitchen is also worth considering. Most of the vans we looked at had the kitchen area in the main body of the van taking up valuable living space. We will be building a slide out kitchen that will live under the bed when not required.

The final thing to think about is storage. Boats do storage much better than vans. Storage is generally an after thought in the smaller cheaper vans. A basic van may have a cupboard or two that are attached to the kitchen and the space under the main bed. You may find that storage is an issue especially if you are planning long trips with a range of activities. We will be adding storage to Tin Lizzy who currently has no built in storage, just an open space under the bed.

Summary